Crooked River: A Novel (30 page)

Authors: Valerie Geary

BOOK: Crooked River: A Novel

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Profound thanks to the many wonderful people who had a hand in the creation of this book. Enthusiastic high-fives and fist bumps to Laurie McGee, Laura Cherkas, Ashley Marudas, and the rest of the team at William Morrow for your attention to detail as well as your care and dedication in making this book a book and bringing it to readers. Special thanks to my editor, Emily Krump, who saw into the heart of this story and drew out the best parts. And to my agent, Julia Kenny, whose determination, confidence, and unfailing support found this book its best home and whose business savvy makes it possible for me to write and keep writing: thank you and thank you and thank you.

Warm hugs and chocolate chip cookies to my family and friends who have been cheering me on since the beginning. To my parents, who indulged my book obsession and never once told me to get a real job, thank you for your boundless love. To my big sister, my cheerleader, my best friend, thank you for listening and sticking with me through the best and worst days. To Mike, Suzanne, Joyce, and Ralph, thank you for welcoming me into your family and for your enduring optimism. To Alisa, thank you for asking the right questions at the right time and helping me bring these characters to life. To Caroline and Kate, thank you for your invaluable feedback, continued encouragement, and gracious friendship—you two keep me sane.

Finally, my deepest gratitude to Ryan, my partner and biggest supporter, for reminding me all those years ago that “real writers write.” Thank you for giving me enough time and space and love, and for helping to make the impossible possible. Let’s keep this adventure going!

About the Author

Valerie Geary is a full-time writer and a fair-weather gardener. Her stories have been published in The Rumpus and
Day One
. She lives in Portland, Oregon, with her family.
Crooked River
is her first book.

valeriegeary.com

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Credits

Cover design by Mumtaz Mustafa. Cover photograph © by Mark Owen/Trevillion Images.

The bee image © by effrossyni/Shutterstock, Inc.

This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

CROOKED RIVER.
Copyright © 2014 by Valerie Geary. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

FIRST EDITION

ISBN 978-0-06-232659-1

EPUB Edition OCTOBER 2014 ISBN: 9780062326614

14 15 16 17 18 OV/RRD 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Publisher

Australia

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www.harpercollins.com.au

Canada

HarperCollins Canada